One of the great ironies of the Turkish politics is that Turkey which has a relatively long history of constitutional government and multi-party politics that go back to at least 1908, has held 15 fair and free elections since 1950, is a member of most of the international organizations of market democracies, and is since 2005 negotiating membership with the European Union can still not be considered as a fully consolidated democracy. This paper discusses the main reasons for this irony, and also looks at the dynamics at play, including the accession process to the European Union, which raise the prospect of the consolidation of the democratic regime.
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